Cleaning applications employ cleaning products, such as towels, in order to remove dirt and other unwanted elements from surfaces. In some instances the cleaning product may be a urethane foam or a cellulose sponge which may be used in order to wipe a surface clean. The cleaning product may be configured with bristles or grit disposed thereon in order to aid in cleaning.
Cleaning products can be configured to work when in a dry state in order to clean the surface, or may be designed to work in a wet state so that the cleaning product is wet to some degree when cleaning the surface. A detergent may be used with the cleaning product in order to assist in breaking up dirt and other unwanted elements so that the surface may be cleaned. It is sometimes the case that dirt or other unwanted elements cannot be sufficiently removed from a surface even when a cleaning product is properly applied. Applying the cleaning product too aggressively may result in the surface being damaged, and may still not result in the removal of dirt or unwanted elements from the surface. Examples of difficult to clean materials include crayon on walls, scuff marks from shoes on floors, permanent magic marker markings on a variety of surfaces such as dry erase boards, stains on porcelain or ceramics including dentures, grease and oil spots on numerous surfaces, hard water spots and soap scum on tile, biofilms on metal and plastic surfaces, mildew and fungus growths on numerous surfaces, and other forms of dirt, grime, or other unwanted elements from various surfaces.
Blocks of melamine foam have been recognized as having useful cleaning properties when wetted with water and rubbed against certain surfaces to be cleaned, and have been marketed in several countries for such purposes. Melamine-based foam has an open-celled, microporous structure. Melamine-based foam is abrasive in that when rubbed across a surface, dirt and other unwanted elements will be removed. Particles of the melamine-based foam may break off due to this abrasive contact. Over time, the melamine-based foam will be worn down due to repeated abrasion with the surface to be cleaned and the unwanted elements present on this surface.
Melamine-based foam may be used to clean a surface when in a wet state. In this regard, the melamine-based foam may be soaked with water to some degree prior to being applied by a user to the surface to be cleaned. A block of melamine-based foam by itself is sometimes used as a cleaning product. In this regard, the user may grasp the block of melamine-based foam, wet the block in water, and then rub the wetted melamine-based foam across a surface to remove dirt and unwanted elements.
Unfortunately, commercially marketed blocks of melamine-based foam suffer from a number of drawbacks. After a few uses, the block tends to become visibly degraded, nonuniform, and soiled, presenting an unsightly appearance even though the product may still have a significant number of additional uses remaining. Given the expense and size of the relatively large foam block, users tend to feel obligated to continue using the soiled foam beyond a point when they may wish to throw the foam away based on its appearance. In some cases, continued use of a soiled foam block can spread particles of grease or grime to previously unsoiled areas.
Another drawback of previous commercial melamine-based foam cleaning products is that the generally thick block of foam does not conform readily to some three-dimensional surfaces, such as interior corners of walls or the inside corners of coffee cups, making it difficult to reach many confined places or depressed regions of some surfaces. Attempts to clean narrow depressed areas, such as grout regions between bathroom tiles, may result in excessive scrubbing pressure applied to the elevated surrounding surfaces and relatively little cleaning of the depressed region, due to the thickness of the foam block and the difficulty of making it conform to small three-dimensional regions.
Further, while melamine-based foam has been recognized as an effective cleaning agent, it does not appear to have been recognized that other relatively brittle foams such as phenolic foams can also perform effective cleaning functions.
The present invention improves upon known cleaning products by providing for an improved cleaning product that includes a thin, flexible layer of an effective cleaning foam such as melamine-based foam or phenolic foam attached to a thin, flexible web to provide a wiping and scrubbing product that can readily conform to complex surfaces and provide good tactile control of applied pressure. Alternatively or in addition, the wiping and scrubbing product can provide for more effective use of the foam, such that after the thin foam layer has been substantially soiled or abraded away by use, the product is ready to be discarded.
In general, it has been discovered that certain relatively brittle foam materials such as microporous melamine foam or phenolic foams can be used as cleaning products in order to remove a wide variety of unwanted elements from surfaces.